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Plastics: What's Recyclable, What Becomes Trash and Why

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Re: Plastics: What's Recyclable, What Becomes Trash and Why

#41

Post by ImprovedSilence »

TylerE wrote: post #15
paultopia wrote: post #3

This is LUDICROUS. Recycling is harder than doing your taxes. We desperately need uniformity on this. " BEVERAGE BOTTLES Recyclable. Be sure to remove the plastic film label, which isn’t recyclable. " FFS. Have you ever tried to remove one of those labels? It's impossible. " A bottle with a cap or an opening the same size or smaller than the base of the bottle is probably going to be recyclable. " -- WTF does the siz…

It's really pretty simple if you actually care about results. Is it aluminum? Recycle it. Is is not aluminum? Don't recycle it.

I'm under the impression glass is worth recycling as well. Prove me wrong.

Re: Plastics: What's Recyclable, What Becomes Trash and Why

#42

Post by skybrian »

NeedMoreTea wrote: post #38
skybrian wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes it's pretty bad. What it comes down to is: follow the local rules. If you don't know the local rules or are unsure, err on the side of keeping the recycling clean and throw it out. (Landfills are quite good at keeping plastic out of the environment. It's the stuff that doesn't make it into the landfill that you have to worry about.)

Then keep checking, as local rules keep evolving so that products they used to consider acceptable stop being so. Sometimes new items become acceptable, but our experience is mostly of things being removed from recycling over the years. It's insane.

Yes, someone needs to write a really good web app, like those that exist for transit.

Re: Plastics: What's Recyclable, What Becomes Trash and Why

#43

Post by ImprovedSilence »

Areading314 wrote: post #32

The truth is that plastic generally can't be recycled, and we should stop pretending as such. Consequently it would make sense to tax it and generally discourage its use as much as possible. Polluters get away with overusing plastic packaging precisely because consumers stop caring when they think it can be recycled.

Agreed. Incentivize the correct materials.

Re: Plastics: What's Recyclable, What Becomes Trash and Why

#44

Post by pcmaffey »

ImprovedSilence wrote: post #41
TylerE wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's really pretty simple if you actually care about results. Is it aluminum? Recycle it. Is is not aluminum? Don't recycle it.

I'm under the impression glass is worth recycling as well. Prove me wrong.

Depends on the area, or so I learned recently upon moving to Montana, where they don't recycle it. Apparently most recycled glass is crushed up and used as roadbase. In MT, gravel is dirt cheap, and so it's not economical to use glass for construction, so into the landfill it goes.

As for recycling glass into other glass, I can't say.

Re: Plastics: What's Recyclable, What Becomes Trash and Why

#45

Post by Scoundreller »

esotericn wrote: post #26
spodek wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I found a simple 80% solution for home plastic: I avoid packaged food in favor of fresh, unwrapped fruits, vegetables, and foods from bulk bins. Now I have a load of garbage to empty a little less than once a year and a load of metal and plastic recycling once or twice a year. Plus my food tastes better and costs less. Everyone is free to do what they want, and experience shows someone will have to tell me the soluti…

Yep. Not only do you avoid plastic but you eat better too because you have hard lines that are not to be crossed. No more chocolate bars, ready meals, pot noodles, bags of crisps or whatever else. Even if you end up buying a bag of rice in plastic you're cutting down the waste by a huge amount because even a small one gives you ten or more servings.

And larger containers have less surface area:volume —> less packaging.

Which is why I really hate it when manufacturers reduce pack sizes.

Re: Plastics: What's Recyclable, What Becomes Trash and Why

#46

Post by csears »

xugy wrote: post #28
TylerE wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It takes more energy to ship and reprocess them than you save. That's why you don't. If you do, it's explicitly because it makes you feel good - it's worse for the planet.

Source?

Thomas Kinnaman was interviewed on Planet Money recently and mentioned roughly this conclusion based on his 2014 study. More details here: https://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2019/07/15/why_its_pro...

Re: Plastics: What's Recyclable, What Becomes Trash and Why

#47

Post by esotericn »

Scoundreller wrote: post #45
esotericn wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. Not only do you avoid plastic but you eat better too because you have hard lines that are not to be crossed. No more chocolate bars, ready meals, pot noodles, bags of crisps or whatever else. Even if you end up buying a bag of rice in plastic you're cutting down the waste by a huge amount because even a small one gives you ten or more servings.

And larger containers have less surface area:volume —> less packaging. Which is why I really hate it when manufacturers reduce pack sizes.

Small pack sizes are such a load of shite.

Some small number of people are travelling.

For the rest, 500g of rice is a pointlessly small amount. It lasts forever, is dense enough to stash, etc.

Re: Plastics: What's Recyclable, What Becomes Trash and Why

#48

Post by fivre »

eloff wrote: post #6
paultopia wrote: post #3

This is LUDICROUS. Recycling is harder than doing your taxes. We desperately need uniformity on this. " BEVERAGE BOTTLES Recyclable. Be sure to remove the plastic film label, which isn’t recyclable. " FFS. Have you ever tried to remove one of those labels? It's impossible. " A bottle with a cap or an opening the same size or smaller than the base of the bottle is probably going to be recyclable. " -- WTF does the siz…

I've noticed that people aren't actually fully capable of just sorting the recycling correctly. There's always stuff in the wrong bins in my building despite an ongoing education effort to fix that and helpful illustrated rules above the bins. Rules about lids and labels is a joke.

Recycling bins at my office are always particularly effective at demonstrating this. Single stream recycling makes things easy!.. Or so I thought, before witnessing an endless stream of banana peels in the recycling bins and plastic bags in the compost bins.

Re: Plastics: What's Recyclable, What Becomes Trash and Why

#49

Post by TheSpiceIsLife »

TylerE wrote: post #15
paultopia wrote: post #3

This is LUDICROUS. Recycling is harder than doing your taxes. We desperately need uniformity on this. " BEVERAGE BOTTLES Recyclable. Be sure to remove the plastic film label, which isn’t recyclable. " FFS. Have you ever tried to remove one of those labels? It's impossible. " A bottle with a cap or an opening the same size or smaller than the base of the bottle is probably going to be recyclable. " -- WTF does the siz…

It's really pretty simple if you actually care about results. Is it aluminum? Recycle it. Is is not aluminum? Don't recycle it.

That’s not an entirely terrible idea.

Could all(?) packaging intended for recycling by made from aluminium?

Re: Plastics: What's Recyclable, What Becomes Trash and Why

#50

Post by yawz »

wlesieutre wrote: post #27

I live in New Haven and saw on our handy recycling flyer [0] that pizza boxes are listed, with no caveat, as being a single stream curbside recyclable item. Which is great, because pizza is a whole thing in this town. We eat a lot of it. So I was surprised to learn, if you go poking around and find the RecycleCT website [1] and hover your mouse over the pizza box, up pops this note. "No food residue. No liner." Never…

A used pizza box can almost always only be composted.
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